GUEST COLUMN: New yard waste bag policy is a crime

JEFF FOX

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, February 16, 2010

In an effort to make Houston more “green,” the Houston City Council recently enacted an ordinance that has many residents seeing red.

As the real details of this new policy begin surfacing, it’s becoming clear that this change may place many Houston families in a Catch-22, forcing them to either pay much more for trash bags or face an outrageous fine.

While we all want cleaner air and water, this new policy just doesn’t make sense on several levels. First off, the mandatory Houston Lawn & Leaf bags, which are only manufactured by one source, can cost up to $1 per bag, five to ten times more expensive than the trash bags available at most grocery stores. Yet they hold 15 percent less than your average 39-gallon bag.

In these times of layoffs, foreclosures and economic uncertainty, this could effectively amount to a new tax on every household in Houston. Not only do the new bags cost more and hold less, they also begin to break down within days when exposed to wet trash or rain. Once the humidity cranks up in the summer, who knows how long these bags will last.

This ordinance gives Houston citizens a choice: Either you pay, or you pay. This means on one hand spending extra money for the new-and-unimproved mandatory trash bags, or facing a maximum fine of $2,000.

Under this new policy, "Placing yard trimmings in incorrect bags" is considered a crime equivalent to a DWI first offense or a misdemeanor assault and could carry a fine up to $2,000.

It hardly seems reasonable to place “yard trimmings” disposal in the same category with these crimes. And what exactly is City Council going to do about families that cannot afford either the new bags or the fine? Throw them in debtor’s prison?

Mulching or building compost piles may appear at first to be viable alternatives, but space limitations, unwanted critters and undesirable odors may strongly deter people from this approach.

This seems to be an example of “Ready…Fire…Aim!” from City Council, and they should seriously consider rethink their decision. Other options exist for residents to eliminate trash bags besides this one-trash-bag-size-fits-all policy.

For example, lawn debris could be placed in recycling trash cans, collected by city trucks, and taken to the landfill. In addition, residents could purchase heavy-duty plastic “reusable” bags similar to those already used by many lawn services.

While we should all do our part to be better stewards of our Earth and pass on a clean environment to future generations, this new policy by City Council may well create more headaches than it solves.

Let's ask the city to work with us to improve implementation of this policy that includes options for a larger number of affected citizens. Please contact your Houston City Councilperson and let them know what you think.